Waris Turns Heads in New Gap Holiday Ad Campaign

Walk into one of the 866 Gap retail stores in the United States this Holiday season, shop online at Gap.com, or visit the company’s Facebook page and you might be surprised to see the face of Indian-American designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia staring back at you.

Gap’s Holiday 2013 ad campaign, which launched this week, has drawn compliments for featuring a diverse group of personalities. Ahluwalia can be seen posing in his photograph with artist and filmmaker Quentin Jones.

Below is a sampling of the comments that can be found on Gap’s official Facebook page:

Keenu Hundal “Saw this ad in teh [sic] downtown San Francisco store and literally stopped in my tracks. I was so happy to see you all select a Sikh male in your new ad campaign. We need to make the Sikh male image more mainstream in order to educate the general public on who we are, so that ignorace does not breed hate any longer. Thank you, Gap!”

And if that wasn’t enough to warm your heart this holiday season, how about this photo of Nashville and Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton with her adopted son Yoby from Ethiopia.

G.B. doesn’t stand for Gareth Bale. It might stand for Graduated, Barely (from law school). After spending time in Texas and Pennsylvania, he now lives in Northern California where he makes gifs and watches a lot of TV, movies and sports.

When Moses met God on top of Mount Sanai The Lord put a turban on his head and then fixed a golden crown in front before He gave him the Ten Commandment. Christians please open the Holy Bible and visit LEVITICUS-8.9 and you will find that the Turban is mentioned at least 20 times in the Old Testament.
For more information about people who wear turban read my blog http://dontmistakemeforamuslim.wordpress.com/
Tejwant Singh from India

Thanks Gap!! Time for us to shop in GAP, i am sure like me lot of other Indians will love to shop there even more now. This is what we call Equal opportunity employer, representing diversity and sending message against hate crime. i am proud to shop in this store and will recommend to all my friends and family and post on face book too. Once again great job Gap!!

Pardon me if I prefer WASPs in my Gap ads. Thank allah Ralph Lauren and A&F prefer them too.
By the by, is Gap selling burkas, turbans, bukhnuks, and abayis these days? I think Sikhs etc. have their tastes, and I have mine, except I guess I’m not allowed to have mine.

The fact that you would equate Sikhs’ “tastes” and your own, personal style is everything that is wrong with what you are saying here. Here’s an astonishing fact – the fact that someone wears a turban and grows a beard says exactly nothing about their taste in fashion. You are not pardoned for preferring WASPs in your Gap ads, because that makes you racist. Saying that an entire group of people “has their tastes” and that that cannot possibly include your own taste means that no, you are not allowed to have your opinions pardoned. That’s what racism is. This is how we should respond to it.

By the way old boy, or girl, there are differences, taste is one of them and a turban and a beard is not my idea of style, or anything except different, and I don’t care for it. And, if you want to call it racist, so be it. I’m not insulted. I’ll let you sort out the parsing, and tortured logic. Have fun.

Are you actually kidding me right now? You think Sikh men wear turbans and keep their big beards because they find it fashionable? You, sir, are the epitome of American ignorance. As a Sikh man, it is part of their culture to not shave their beard or cut their hair, hence the turban is worn. Their turban is considered “a gift to God, it represents commitment. Seriously, get your head out of your ass and learn a little something about the world before you start criticizing people for trying to change what’s wrong with this world, i.e. cultural ignorance, i.e. you.

Heya richa! Thank you for your enlightening response. Since we’re talking about a fashion spread, it is about fashion, the religious context is not material. And this isn’t criticism, it’s commentary. Quite frankly as a typical American, I don’t know much about Sikhs and my interest is, shall we say, limited. As for the vulgarisms you utilize, that, sir, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, will get you far… in the wrong direction.

“..as a typical American, I don’t know much about Sikhs and my interest is, shall we say, limited.”

Spoken like a true xenophobic American ignoramus. Sure, you can have your own tastes, the rest of the world will just move on to more progressive models of what beauty standards are (not the same facial-hair-free blue-eyed white people) while you shake your stick at the changes.

“Feed the troll by being equally ugly and bigoted.”
Hey @Monkey_pants, I’m just telling someone that their thoughts fit those of a person who is ignorant, is aware of his ignorance, and yet refuses to learn about what they don’t know when it comes to foreign cultures. Worse yet, @tim even admitted that he is “a typical American”. The label “xenophobic American ignoramus” just wrote itself. The truth is ugly, I’ll agree.

But GAP has always been WASP. This is just something different because style comes in spades but unfortunately not enough. There is room for all but if you are really upset just walk across to Banana Republic and Anne taylor. You’ll be home again.

A Sikh with a beard wearing a turban is just as American as any one. I think that’s the point. You may find it ugly but, who’s to say they are not Americans. Someone may find a particular model “ugly” but, does that mean they should receive a plethora of disgust and be removed? It’s all subjective. Turbans and beards are not a matter of style. A beard grows on men biologically, it’s anatomical. A turban has great meaning for a Sikh and, so is almost a part of that persons being. And Tim, can you please tell me who the “typical” American is? I think it is “typical” for Americans to get educated. This ad serves to educate people like you so, that you realize Sikhs are people just like you and me and everyone and not just “others”.

How is Tim racist?? Most muslim men as an example would prefer a woman with a hijab. That is their idea of beauty. And Tim likes to see Wasps– that’s his idea of beauty– his culture, his religion. Notice that in the comments the Indian Sikhs primarily like it and say “he’s gorgeous” LmaO.. That turban and full beard is ugly to me. So you are racist too for preferring a Sikh in your GAP ad. And black rappers are racist for preferring black women in their lyrics. What a joke and double standard.

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[…] The sight of the influential Ahluwalia in his turban in an ad for a major American company brought surprise and some proud responses to the company’s Facebook page. It also sparked a debate on the representation of Sikh Americans in the […]

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